


and i could cry power

by mildlyantiquated



Category: The Tapestry Series - Henry H. Neff
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 19:50:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16125512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mildlyantiquated/pseuds/mildlyantiquated
Summary: Max says his goodbyes one more time.





	and i could cry power

    Max loitered around the old signpost while he waited for the gate to open. He looked across to the last glimmering rays of the summervyne sun.  
Next to him, the girl with the long auburn hair squirmed. There was no sign of the gate anywhere near the sheer cliffs of the sidh.  
     

      “Ula.” Max said, amused.”Peace. You were the one who insisted.” Privately, he was disappointed that she was the only one who did. His mother and father had said their goodbyes long ago. He could remember his mother's hand on his face, as she insisted he went.  
   

      “Go, Max.” She had said, smiling.”Say your goodbyes. Give Rowan my love.”

    His dad had looked up then. “Get me Bob’s recipes if you can.”  
   

  “ _Scott_.”  
     

    Scathach did not say anything. But Max knew what she was saying in her own private way: rowan, although dear, would never be her home. But little Ula, visiting the farmhouse with the shieldmaidens, was hungry to see the human world with her mistress’s blessing.  
   

     “What is it like?” She asked him, drawing him out of his thoughts.”I heard you tell us stories when you first came. Has much changed?”

    He could see the hunger in her dark, dark eyes. “Well,” he said choosing his words carefully,” I told you there was a war..”  
   

     She nods, the hardness settling into her chin.”I can hear the cries in your blade.”  
   

    The gae bolga was still in his hands, but Max could still hear the screams across The Witchpeaks, Blys, and Rowan. He shuddered, and let the familiar clear his mind. “David-the clever one-he’s director now. And the scarred man I told you about?” He waits for the her nod.  
   

    “He got married a while ago.”  
     

    Ula laughed. “To who?”  
     

    “You’ll see soon enough. Maybe she’s a hag.”  
   

     “I’d like to see your Rowan.” There was a note of longing in Ula’s voice.”I don’t if-”  
 

    She is cut off by a familiar ring of light. Max can’t hide grin on his face and for a moment he is watching a tapestry come to life.  The ring grows larger and larger until it reveals what’s left of the sanctuary. The breeze was warm and balmy, carrying the scent of the sea with it.  
   

      Out of the corner of the gate, a pale, lean youth was waving his one-detached hand. Max couldn’t stop himself. “You look older.”  
   

      “You look exactly the same.” There was a note of slyness in David’s voice, that Max forgot he had missed. He runs his hands through his hair. “It’s been a long three months, Max.” he says blowing hair out of his cheeks.  
   

      Max is only a little surprised. He, after all, learned the hard way that time passes strangely under the hill.” More than a decade for me.”  
     

    David smiled sadly. There was age on his face that max is unsure if he is used to. “The gate is open until the sun rises over Old Tom. I’ve called the others.”  
 

     “How’s Mina?” Max asks.  
     

     The smile on David’s face betrays his pride. “Mina’s coming too. She’s gathering quite the following.”  
     

      “Go easy on her,” Max pleads, “she’s been through a lot.”  
   

       “I can’t promise that,” David says pensively, “We’ve all grown too much.”  
     

     Max expected nothing less but he had to try. For Mina. Sometimes he checks the swaying signpost to find trinkets and Mina’s flowers giving him a sign. “I suppose the faeregine can’t rest. Speaking of, lay off of the coffee. I’m beginning to see what Mrs.Cooper was talking about.”  
   

      “For shame Max!” The voice is coming from Cynthia; accompanying her are Lucia, Conner in his vye form, Sarah, and the Coopers. In the distance, Max can see Bob’s lumbering form. “Can’t you think of any better news than bullying our davey?”  
     

   Everyone is smiling wide, content with their few hours of well earned peace. Max is grinning wide enough to split his face open. Conner’s long snout almost poked through the barrier before Lucia’s hand shoots out to pull him back.  
   

     “Max!” He cries, “Visit us the other side, yeah?”  
     

     He doesn’t miss the warning look Ula shot him. “I won’t.” The distinction was important to him.  
 

     Hazel Cooper opens her mouth to speak but Cooper stops her. “And who is that?” He asks in his weathered voice, nodding to Ula.  
 

    “Her name is Ula; she’s one of Scathach’s shieldmaidens.”  
   

   “Is she...” Hazel asks, clearly afraid to broach the question.  
   

  “Scathach is here, Mrs.Cooper. My mother and father, too.”Max smiles a little at it. Here in the Sidh he knows a deeper tranquility than he had ever done in their world.  
   

     “Malyenki,” Bob asks just out of sight of the gate, “Bob would like to know. If you could come back.” Judging by The stricken faces, Bob had asked a question that his friends were too afraid to voice.  
 

    “I can,” he said, utterly serious.”I won’t.”  
   

      “Max.” Conner laughs,” Come off it! You can stand spend a little time on this side of the gate.”  
 

    Ula answers for him.”My prince has duties to his people,” she cries indigently, “your world can no longer have him.”  
   

    Sarah and Lucia, in a typical fashion, try shout him out, while Cooper looks at him with deep sorrow etched into his face.  
 

      “I won’t.” Max says again. “I’m sorry. I would have never left you. Cooper-“ he turns to address Cooper who was clutching Gabrielle at a firm distance from the gate. “I would’ve like to see Gabrielle grow up.”  
 

      This was too much for Hazel, and fat years began rolling down her face. “You’ll always have a place here, Max.” She dabs at her puffy red eyes.      “Remember that for me.”  
     

       “Don’t cry, Mrs. Cooper,”Max said “we had a good run.”  
       “It was the best,” Sarah agreed, meeting his gaze.  
       

        Max took a few minutes to enjoy the silence of Rowan and the presence of his friends, their hearts beating in sure, quick time because of his choice. Really, he reasoned, could ask for more than that?  
        It was interrupted by Ula. “I’m sorry,” she said, unapologetically. “ Mrs.Cooper the hag?”  
       

        The ensuing yelling was worse then anything Max had ever heard at Rowan. Cooper refused to help him when he plead for aid, subsequently bringing up years of bickering among them. Ula actually clapped her hands over her ears and Max found himself wheezing with laughter. It was loud and grating but exactly like home.  
     

      A small, pale hand interrupted the story Conner was telling about the elder Vye in a barrel.  
   

    “Max!” Mina cried, waving at him through the gate. “I didn’t know if I would see you again.”

     “You know where I am, Mina,” he said as the others grew silent.

     “The gates to Sidh are fat and few between,” she said seriously. “And wise Max is on the other side.” She pointed to sign that marked Rodrubân. “Would I have a place in your kingdom when my time is up?”  
     

     “You always have a place with me, Mina.” He found that he missed her much more than he was willing to admit to himself. He look at Mina’s little hand in the gate. Could he risk it?  
   

      “Carefully, he reaches out to intertwine their fingers through the gate. For a moment, they forgot about the Hound and the Faeregine, and they were once more Max and Mina. But it too, passed.  
   

      Max felt the blood running down his side before he could feel the sting. Gasping, he pulls his hand away and felt the wound knit together. He couldn’t forget his vow, not now, not ever.  
   

     “My prince-“ Ula warned at the same David said “Max.”  
     

      “I’m fine.” Max said, shifting aside his mail shirt so they could see him. “It’s healed.” Not strictly true, but they didn’t need to worry. He looked each of them dead in the eyes as comprehension dawned on their face. “Never.” He told them, “invite a god into your world.”  
     

       David interrupted the silence. “We have an hour left Max.”  
     

      “I want to go!” Ula blurted out. Max looked at her strangely.  
       

        “You know what you’d be giving up.” He stated it as blandly as a fact.  
       

      Scathach’s youngest shieldmaiden looked him full in the eyes. “I need to see the world. I will not die standing for nothing.”

       

      “Your sisters? Scathach?”  
       

       “I left them a letter,” she said stiffly. “Please-“  
         

         Max turned to David. “What do you say?” He asked him smiling. “Does Rowan have an extra place for another troublemaker?”  
     

      David laughed. “Always.”  
   

        Ula embraced him and let go as quickly. “Give the Sidh my love.” She called out before stepping through the gate. For a minute she looked back at the Sidh’s green hills before she bounded away. Scathach would understand more than most why he had to let her go, but her sisters-in-arms would miss her.  
 

   “The door is closing,” David said softly.  
     

        “I’m not saying goodbye,” Hazel said fiercely. I will see you again.”  
       

       His family gave him a final wave before melting into the forest.

       Only David remained. “I came to tell you,” he said, looking at Max with eye that had the gravity of other worlds. “You will always be our Max.”  
     

 “You will always be my brother.” Max said. “I want to you to know you are welcome in the halls of Rodrubân.”  
       

       The gate shrank pulling the warmth of Rowan out of view. And Max turned to the hills of his ancestors once more.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please read the tapestry series.


End file.
